Electronic self reporting of symptoms may improve survival in patients with metastatic cancer

Enabling patients with metastatic cancer to report any severe or worsening symptoms electronically using tablet computers significantly improved their overall survival more than usual care, a randomised trial has reported.1

Symptoms are common in patients being treated for advanced cancers, but previous research has shown that these are not discussed with doctors on as many as half of the times they occur. Interest in integrating electronic patient reported outcomes into routine cancer care for symptom monitoring is growing, but evidence showing clinical benefit is limited.

Researchers randomly assigned 766 patients (median age 61) …